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Coalition Press Release

The Formosa Plastics Cambodia dumping incident created an international furor which forced Formosa Plastics to sign an agreement with the Cambodian government on February 25th to remove the toxic mercury waste within 60 days. Now however, it appears that rather than taking the waste back to Taiwan, Formosa Plastics has contracted with US Waste company Safety-Kleen to move the waste to its hazardous waste landfill in one of the country's poorest, predominantly Latino counties in California's Imperial Valley and dump it there. The dump is five miles from the Salton Sea and about 35 miles from the Mexican border.

In a conference call yesterday, the environmental and community activists learned that the United States Environmental Protection Agency gave Safety-Kleen the consent to import the waste without knowing whether or not the Safety-Kleen site was legally permitted to dispose of the waste there.(1) They also admitted that they failed to consider Executive Order 12898 on Environmental Justice which requires all federal agencies to ensure that they do not take actions which would have a discriminatory or disproportionate impact on low-income communities, or communities of color.

Residents of Westmoreland have begun to speak out in opposition to the planned shipment of toxic waste to their community.

"They want to dump everything over here," said Leonard Mendez, resident of Westmoreland. "They shouldn't force this down our throats."

"The waste industry seems intent on making California the pay toilet for the Pacific Rim." said Jane Williams, director of California Communities Against Toxics, "California dumps have excess capacity because of diligent efforts to reduce the amounts of hazardous waste produced in California; we will not stand silent while the importation of hazardous waste becomes the next new growth industry in California."

In November of last year, Formosa Plastics, unable to continue dumping in Taiwanese communities due to public outrage in the highly polluted island nation of Taiwan, illegally allowed a waste broker to ship the toxic waste to Cambodia where it was dumped in a field just outside the port town of Sihanoukville. It has been widely reported that bribes of up to 3 million

dollars were paid to government officials in Cambodia to allow the illegal waste importation. Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in the world. Formosa Plastics is a transnational giant, being the world's largest producer of PVC plastic.

Following the dumping, two persons that handled the waste died and a riot and panicked exodus from the town caused 5 more deaths. The World Health Organization originally said that the waste was not a problem, but subsequently admitted that very high levels of mercury had been detected in the waste and elevated levels were found in nearby wells.

"Formosa Plastic appears to practice environmental injustice as policy on a global scale,"said Jim Puckett of the Basel Action Network (BAN), an international toxic waste watchdog group. "First they dump their poisons on their own communities in Taiwan. When the public protests that, they devise a scheme to dump on the poorest country in the hemisphere, and now they are hoping to saddle one of California's low-income Latino communities with their toxic legacy. They must be forced to take responsibility."

The environmental justice activists are demanding 1) that the toxic waste be first removed from Cambodia within the allotted 60 days; 2) that the toxic waste must be returned to the factory site of Formosa Plastic that produced the waste in the first place; 3) that Taiwan not be allowed to dump their waste in Taiwanese communities again and instead the hazardous waste should be placed in safe, contained, above-ground, government and citizen monitored storage on Formosa Plastic's site and at their expense; and 4) that Formosa Plastics be held liable for all injury, damages and costs incurred due to their export of hazardous wastes to Cambodia.

"In the past, Formosa Plastic has constantly externalized the economic and environmental costs of its chemical wastes upon helpless residents of Taiwan, said Lily Hsueh of the Taiwan Environmental Action Network. "Now, we stand in solidarity with the California groups in preventing Formosa Plastic from afflicting more people or contaminating more places, whether they are in Cambodia, the United States, or in Taiwan."

"We will not allow this deadly toxic waste to be shipped across the ocean to be dumped on a low-income community of color here in California," said Bradley Angel, Executive Director of Greenaction. "We will take action to stop the shipment and stop this ongoing environmental injustice."

For more information contact:

Jane Williams, California Communities Against Toxics (805) 256-0968

Bradley Angel, Greenaction (415) 566-3475

Lupe Quintero, California Rural Legal Assistance (760) 353-3979

Jim Puckett, Basel Action Network (206) 720-6426

Lily Hsueh, Taiwan Environmental Action Network, (510) 649-0647.

(1) U.S. EPA has restrictions against the burial of mercury bearing waste (land disposal restrictions) above TCLP leach test levels of .2 parts per million (ppm). Yet tests from the Hong Kong EPA show that the waste has a TCLP level of .80 ppm.